A Week, Briefly (May 22, 2023)

 We had a lot of out-of-the-house stuff going on this week.  Other than Morning Meeting, naps, and tucking in at bedtime, we had to practice being flexible.  And the forecast is for even more flexibility in the weeks ahead!

We're almost finished re-memorizing The Living Christ.  For the older kids, it's a review, but Lola and Baymax were only 3 or 4 years old the last time we worked on it, so for them it's new.  It's good for all of us, and it's one of our Primary/Youth goals as a family.  We're 5 songs into a 6 song document (it's 10-ish paragraphs, but some paragraphs are combined in the music), so this week and next, we're reviewing one song a day, and when the girls get home from camp, we'll set to work on the final song.

We had 2 kids with orthodontic appointments, 2 kids with psychiatric appointments, 2 kids with lab appointments, prescriptions to pick up, a washing machine to pick up and install, grocery shopping, a live musical performance, 1 daycare baby with an asthma attack and corresponding medical stuff to deal with, 1 teen organizing a clogging performance with a friend, church activities, 2 young adults calling for parental advice, a mission phone call from Belle, errands to run for Belle . . . and we're living with only one car--which means I have to drop off and pick up Sir Walter Scott from work each day.

Lots of blessings!

Lots of adjustments!

The teens and I completed several more Mystery of History Lessons.  We worked through one of the more demanding review tests and had so much fun laughing over mistakes and triumphs.  It's fascinating to see what interests each teen--they're polar opposites in so many ways.

They're also cute best friends.

(Oh!  We bought some new-to-us armchairs this week, too!)

The kids and I have allowed our formal botany lessons to fade out.  We did not complete all of the available lessons, but we did so much, and the kids make botanical observations constantly, so I think we did the most important part of learning--igniting an interest!

It's mulberry season!

The kids are foraging all over the neighborhood . . . 

eating straight from the trees.

It might be everyone's favorite season.

Two other passions are consuming the kids these days:  clay and Mensa kids' book lists.

There's so much clay in our area, that almost pure clay can be dug up in the right places.  One of those places is right across the street.  And the kids availed themselves of the supply every day this week.

We did have one small "situation" when I found out that Ladybug was using her watercolor paints on the clay!

I redirected her to tempera paints, and all is well again.

This one is by Lola, and she did paint it beautifully, but someone knocked it over before I could get a picture of the finished product.

The other passion, the Mensa kids' reading lists, has inspired some good quality reading.

Though the pictures are only of Beowulf, Baymax and Ladybug have been equally consumed.  

I'm quite grateful for how the lists have opened my kids' eyes to the quality of the books we own.  Lately, I've been hearing so much, "There's nothing good to read!"

I've been ready to tear my hair out over it.  

But Baymax read Little House on the Prairie this week and said, "Huh!  This book is a lot better than I thought it was going to be."

I hope, hope, hope he'll go on to try another book that might be "better than [he] thought it was going to be."

The musical we saw was Annie Jr.--performed by some of our American Rhythm friends with their homeschool academy.

We settled most of the kids on blankets and with snacks right at the stage where they could see everything.  Those of us who preferred chairs, and the most unpredictable babies sat in the back.

And I'm glad we did, because only 2 songs into the show, I had to take them to the playground way up at the front of the campus so that they wouldn't yell through the songs.

They practiced all kinds of climbing skills that now put them at greater risk of falling to their deaths than ever before! 😂

I pulled together some good sensory and fine motor play this week for the babies (who just aren't babies anymore!).

I found spring-loaded scissors that make it possible even for very young hands to practice snipping.  I literally put out trays of paper to just snip.  When they began losing interest in snipping, I pulled out glue and some more paper.  And a whole new set of fine motor exercises began.

These two were awake early and had a chance to play with beans in the quiet.  They were delightful explorers.

And lastly, I whipped up some foam (body wash and water whipped with my hand mixer and dumped into a wading pool with a couple of inches of water) and a bunch of kitchen tools, and kids were engaged for over an hour!  

My kids played the longest, even extending the play into the next day by re-whipping the foam as well as using the dyed water (I dyed one of the batches) to play mermaid hair salon!

Everyone was so fresh and clean-smelling when they rinsed off!

We went to the park.

I accidentally started a rollicking game of "Lava Monster."  A few of the kids are resting here, but everyone 4 and up played hard.  It's always astonishing to me that I have such power to create fun for the kids.

The other highlight of the day was taking everyone to the water to watch fish swim, guess at what bugs were doing, see two goose families swimming around, and find shells.

My favorite quote of the day came from Little Mister Frog as this picture was taken: 
"I want to pet the turkeys!"
We would never actually try to pet a wild goose, but we humored the babies and got pretty close, but the geese had a clear set of boundaries that we could not cross.

It was inspection day at CAP.

Little Princess was fabulous about washing and pressing her uniform early in the day!

I was so pleased I took a picture to document it.

She received 4 excellents and 2 satisfactories.

I'm delighted for her!

Beowulf 's primary teacher gave him a scripture study challenge to complete at home.  He needed my help, and he was so faithful about completing it.

The last picture of the week is of boys learning to be men by mowing the lawn.

They're always so pleased and satisfied after working like this.

We're still reading In Search of the Castaways, Among the Night People, and Stories of Robin Hood.

They're all very engaging reads.

At snack time I focus on reading more to the babies' level, so I pulled out our favorite (James Marshall's) version of The Three Little Pigs, and we read that one several days in a row.  My kids claim to be above such silly readings, but they listen and converse avidly every time.

Memorial Day is tomorrow.  After a pancake breakfast and honor ceremony with our church community, we will spend the rest of the day getting the girls and Sir Walter Scott ready for camp.  They leave on Tuesday morning.

I'll also be meal prepping for the week because I won't have a single minute to prepare food for the kids and daycare babies I will have at home.

I've already been prepping activities for a while now.

I'm determined to have a great week even without my 3 best extra sets of hands.